Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Love Song
by Annette Zoaps
Summary: Hallmark Channel's "Chesapeake Shores" is based on the novels by Sherryl Woods. Mick and Megan O'Brien are my favorite characters in this series. This story came to mind after I heard a rendition of "Love Song" by Treat Williams, who portrays Mick O'Brien. Though he recorded it when he was on "Everwood," the song was written in the early 1970s, so the time frame works.


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 **The Hallmark Channel's 'Chesapeake Shores'**

Mick & Megan O'Brien

By Annette Zoaps

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 **'** **Love Song'**

 _"_ _I wanna sing you a love song …"_

Mick sits on a log and strums a beautiful melody on his guitar. As he sings the simple lyrics of a long-remembered song, Abby and Trace practice graceful dance moves under the trees near the O'Brien family home's fire pit.

"Wait, start again, Dad," Abby says after she forgets a step.

"Don't stress over it, hon," her father soothes. "Let it come naturally."

"I'll try. You and Mom had it easy. When you sang this song to her at your wedding, you didn't have to dance along with it."

Mick smiles at the memory.

"Oh, stop!" Abby laughs. "You're thinking about your wedding again, aren't you."

"Something like that," he confesses.

"Or thinking about _after_ their wedding," she whispers to Trace.

"What man wouldn't," Trace whispers back, wearing a smile she can't resist.

Mick begins the song again, closing his eyes and making the words a promise to someone who's never left his thoughts since the day he married her thirty-five years ago. The seventeen years they've been divorced somehow seem just a blip on the radar, and he has plans to erase those years from both their memories.

But first, he has to surprise her in just the right way.

. . .

"What are you girls doing in the kitchen?" Megan asks Carrie and Caitlyn. "Where's Nell?"

"She went to bed with a headache," Carrie replies. "We thought you weren't coming over until dinnertime."

"I got off early. I don't want to miss any of the wedding planning if I can help it." She smiles and gives the girls a hug.

"You can help us," Caitlyn says. "Grandpa, Mommy and Trace have been rehearsing out there for a long time, so we're bringing them some iced tea."

Megan looks out the window and sees the tableau of her ex-husband with his guitar, their eldest daughter and her fiancé. She places her hand over her heart, moved by the scene.

"I didn't know your grandfather was planning to sing at the wedding. I must have missed that meeting." She frowns at the thought that sometimes she's still an outsider in her family's lives.

"He sings really good!" Carrie boasts.

"Oh, he does." Megan's frown turns into a sad, wistful expression, as memories of a long-ago day flood her thoughts. "Let's go listen! I'll help you carry the glasses."

"Mimi? What's a wren?" Caitlyn asks.

A look of alarm comes over Megan's face.

"No, they wouldn't …"

She rushes out the terrace door.

. . .

 _"_ _There's a wren in a willow wood, flies so high, sings so good. And he brings to you, what he sings to you …"_

As Megan's steps take her closer to her three family members outside, there's no mistaking what she hears — a song she loves, but one that breaks her heart.

At the sound of a sob behind him, Mick immediately stops mid-strum.

"Megan! You weren't supposed to hear this!"

"Mick, how could you? Abby, why …?"

Mick leaps over the log he was sitting on and signals Abby and Trace to take the girls back to the house, as Megan stands frozen in place.

"Megan, I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

"Were you really going to spring it on me in the middle of Abby's reception? Bring me grief on what's supposed to be the happiest day of a mother's life? Why would you do that?"

She tries to sweep tears from her cheeks, but they keep falling.

Mick wraps his arms around her, taking greater liberties than he has in more than a decade.

"I'm an idiot," he whispers. "I wanted it to be a happy moment for us when I sang this."

"You _are_ an idiot," she agrees, but she doesn't push him away. "I love this song, I always have. But I only listen to it when I need a good cry. Don't tell me it's easy for you to sing, with all the memories it holds."

"Abby said she wanted the song at her wedding." He offers the excuse as he holds Megan closely and strokes her hair.

"You could have talked her out of it." Megan looks up accusingly.

"It's a happy memory for her. She remembers when I sang it to you when she was little. She doesn't think it's sad. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it might be healing for us — for you and me."

"What about giving me a little warning, then, so I could get a handle on my emotions?"

"I had a plan to prepare you so it wouldn't hurt to hear it at the wedding. But that idea's gone to hell now."

She laughs at his choice of words — and at the ridiculous idea that she could _ever_ be ready hear this song in a public venue with her ex-husband close by, singing it.

Mick hears her laugh. He pulls back slightly and looks at her with a smile of relief.

"So? What was this plan?" she asks.

"The wedding's in three weeks, right?"

She nods.

"I figured if I could make you fall in love with me in three weeks, then the song would be a happy one again."

. . .

"Do you think they're okay out there," Abby asks Trace after sending the girls upstairs with a board game and cookies.

"Are they hugging? I can't tell." He squints, trying to see them in the distance.

"Either that, or Dad's got her arms pinned so she can't slug him!"

Trace sighs. "I've never seen your mother so upset. Not even when Jess rejected her last year. We should have listened to you about clearing the song with her first."

"Dad was so convincing, and in the end, I went against my better judgment."

"Remind me to _never_ question your instincts!"

"I've made some good calls, I agree." She kisses her fiancé. "The best one was choosing you!"

. . .

"Love?" Megan raises a hand to her lips as if to stifle a laugh. "Did we sail right past _like_?"

"Oh, you like me," he assures with a wicked smile.

"Aren't you confident!" She doesn't smile in return, preferring instead to needle him a while longer.

"I can prove it. How about this — I see the look on _your_ face, when you look at _my_ face." He stares into her eyes and nods slowly, making his point.

Megan can't deny it, but she does her best to deepen her frown.

He goes on. "You smiled when I brought you flowers after you moved back to town."

"But then you practically warned me away."

"No, I warned you it wouldn't be easy — so you'd _stay._ I didn't think I could stand it if you ran away again, Megan." His arms still around her, he gently rubs her back in a rhythmic, soothing motion. "I knew you could handle whatever came. I also knew that if I challenged you, no matter how hard the kids made it, you'd stay just to spite me, if for no other reason."

"It's been hard sometimes, but I'm glad I stayed." She glimpses his satisfied smile out of the corner of her eye. "Don't look so smug!"

"I can keep going."

She nods for him to continue, pretending she's not convinced.

"You got me that live music permit for The Bridge."

"You said it was for you _and_ Trace."

"Honey, you didn't get it for Trace," he challenges. "And then you thanked me for suggesting you for the job with the city."

"You said you didn't know anything about that."

"You knew I did it, and it made you happy. See? You like me," he concludes.

"Maybe," she hedges. "But then you ruined it by going behind my back with that song."

She no longer appears angry, just hurt.

"I'm sorry. That was the last thing I wanted. Let's go talk to Abby and Trace and help them pick out another song, okay?"

"What if …?"

His eyes light up with hope. "Megan, I'll do anything. Just name it."

"Maybe if you sang it — now — and we get all our tears out, maybe Abby could still have her song. Maybe."

"I'd love nothing more than to sing it to you," he whispers against her cheek. "Only for you."

At his last words, Megan buries her face in his chest.

He begins with the chorus, softly and gently: " _And I wanna sing you a love song, wanna rock you in my arms all night long. I wanna get to know you, wanna show you the peaceful feeling of my home …"_

His arms tighten around her, as she sobs quietly against him.

"I don't know about three weeks," she gasps between shaky breaths.

"I know. Wishful thinking. I couldn't help but hope."

"No, Mick." She looks up at him. "It won't take three weeks."

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 **The End**

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 _This story is complete! If you love Mick and Megan as much as I do, be sure to check out my other stories:_

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 _If you love Mick and Megan as much as I do, be sure to check out my other stories:_

 _NEW! Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, The Whiskers of Machu Picchu, 2 chapters_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Come Let Me Love You_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Fear of Flying, 3 chapters_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, The One That I Want_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Where the Wind Blows_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Once a Promise_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Mother of the Bride, 2 chapters_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, Love Song_

 _Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores Mick and Megan O'Brien, First Kiss_

 _The Hallmark Channel's 'Chesapeake Shores' — Mick & Megan O'Brien, 9 chapters_

 _Chesapeake Shores — Megan at the Met — Mick and Megan O'Brien, 6 chapters_

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 _I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has been reading and making positive comments about my stories!_

 _I appreciate it more than you know!_

 _Annette Zoaps_

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